NetFlix Talks the Cloud and HTML5

Netflix's Director of Web Engineering discusses HTML5, but not for video.

Adrian Cockcroft, Director of Web Engineering brought up the viability of the HTML5 canvas for designing rich user interfaces and the scalability of the Amazon cloud in a blog post late Wednseday night.

Cockroft talked up the cross-platform and device abilities of HTML5, but was quick to quiet speculation from Hacking Netflix and TechCrunch that HTML5 would be used to replace Microsoft's proprietary Silverlight codec as the video platform for Netflix's popular Instant streaming feature.

"The basic HTML5 doesn't have a viable DRM solution at this point," Cockroft said in an update to his original post.

This statement echo's Hulu's earlier statement regarding the lack of features in the HTML5 that limit the wider corporate adoption of the format. But given the format's increasing popularity, open format and recent release of open players such as the JW Player for HTML5, that will likely change.